The Great Lakes of North America

The Great Lakes in North America are a group of five, very large lakes on and near the Canadian-United States border. These lakes are the largest group of fresh water lakes in the world and are sometimes referred to as inland seas.

Lake Superior is the deepest and largest of the Great Lakes, and is large than the Czech Republic. Lake Michigan is the only of the Great Lakes that is entirely in the United States. Lake Michigan is the second largest lake of the Great Lakes, in terms of volume.

Lake Huron is in both Canada and the United States, and is the second largest of the Great Lakes in terms of area. Lake Erie is the shallowest, as well as the smallest of the Great Lakes in terms of volume. Lake Ontario is at a much lower altitude than the other Great Lakes, and is the smallest of the Great Lakes in area.

Oftentimes, people will use a mnemonic for recalling the names of the lakes. This mnemonic is the word HOME. It stands for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior, respectively. This mnemonic does not place any of the lakes in any kind of order, but is used merely in order to remember the names of the lakes.

Lakes Huron and Michigan are hydrologically intertwined and are sometimes considered to be one larger lake: Lake Michigan-Huron. When considered as one lake, Michigan-Huron would be larger in surface areas than Lake Superior, yet smaller in total water volume.

There exists a sixth, much smaller lake by the name of Lake St. Clair. Lake St. Clair is considered part of the Great Lakes system and is situated between Lake Erie and Lake Huron, yet it is not believed to actually be part of the Great Lakes system.

The Great Lakes system also includes rivers and other connective bodies of water that connect the Great Lakes. St. Mary’s River between Lake Huron and Lake Superior, the Niagara River and Niagara Falls, between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, as well as the Detroit River, which runs between Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair, are all examples of these types of connecting water bodies.

All of the Great Lakes, except for Lake Michigan, are bounded by Ontario, Minnesota, Michigan (except for Lake Ontario), Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania. Four of the five Great Lakes straddle the Canada-United States border, with the fifth, Lake Michigan, being entirely within the United States.

The St. Lawrence River marks the same border for a part of its own course, and is a major outlet of these interconnected lakes. The St. Lawrence River flows through Quebec and past the Gaspe Peninsula, to the northern Atlantic Ocean.

The Great Lakes have an impact on the local weather of this region. This effect is known, simply, as the ‘lake effect’. In the winter time, moisture that is picked up by the prevailing winds of the west can often produce very heavy snowfall, particularly along the lake shores to the east, such as Ontario, Michigan, and New York.

The most infamous example of the lake effect is the Blizzard of ’77, where strong winds and heavy snowfall ran the length of Lake Erie and covered Buffalo, New York in drifte4d snow. But the lake effect also has some better impact, such as the ‘fruit belts’, where unseasonably warm air and climate makes it possible for fruit to be grown this far north.

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